The Cure Celebrate 40 Years at London Show

Entertainment

Posted on July 09, 2018

The Cure have performed in searing heat in London's Hyde Park, celebrating almost 40 years to the day since their first show.

Playing at the end of a sweltering day of music at British Summer Time festival, The Cure treated the crowd to a joyous, sing-along mix of their classic pop and rock tunes dating back to the late 1970s.

Singer Robert Smith thanked all the fans and bands who braved the heat in London as he revealed he was close to celebrating four decades leading The Cure and reserved special thanks for those fans who were "still here" after so many years.

A leading figure in the goth subculture of the 1980s, Smith jokingly cowered behind his fingers raised in a cross against the sun as he came on stage.

"I really can't talk until the sun goes down," he said. "It's taking all my energy not to dissolve."

The heat did not sap his energy for performance, however, as the 59-year-old led his band through a set of classic hits including Friday I'm In Love, Boys Don't Cry, Lullaby and Close to Me.

Nearly 50,000 people came out to watch the bands - including Interpol, Goldfrapp and Editors - on the second day of British Summer Time 2018, a day which also saw the capital host the annual LGBT Pride march and England beat Sweden 2-0 to progress to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Temperatures passed 30C as goths and rockers clad in black and leather mingled with fans in football shirts and peopled decked out in glitter and rainbows in London's biggest open space.

Sporadic chants of "football's coming home", a line from 1996's Three Lions which has become an impromptu anthem of the summer due to England's ongoing success at the World Cup, echoed across the park between the bands.